Brussels, 05/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - As announced earlier (EUROPE 9436), the German chancellor and president-in-office of the EU Council, Angela Merkel, and the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, gave their approval at the EU/Canada summit in Berlin on Monday, for the launching of a joint study to assess whether the time was right for a deeper partnership between the EU27 and Canada.
Economic partnership. European and Canadian leaders naturally restated their resolve to conclude the Doha round of talks. However, as a complement to the multilateral process and on the basis of bilateral talks for a Trade and Investment Enhancement Agreement (TIEA) - begun in 2004 and suspended for over a year - they above all stressed they would work on advancing EU-Canada economic integration and facilitating trade and investment flows. To this end, the two sides therefore agreed to cooperate on a study to examine and assess the costs and benefits of a closer economic partnership. The study will examine the existing barriers, especially non-tariff, to the flow of goods, services and capital, and estimate the potential benefits of removing such barriers. The study will also identify ways to complement ongoing efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas such as science and technology, energy and the environment. EU and Canadian leaders also decided to intensify work on regulatory cooperation. To this end, they restated their commitment to fully implement the framework for regulatory cooperation and transparency by endorsing the 2007-2008 Regulatory Cooperation Roadmap for nine sectoral initiatives (chemical products, electrical and electronic equipment and waste, equivalency of biological products, veterinary standards, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, devices that emit radiation, chemical contaminants in foodstuffs and the labelling of food allergens and accident prevention), set out in a long annex attached to the final joint declaration. EU and Canadian leaders also expressed their commitment to conclude a Regulatory Cooperation Agreement, addressed under the TIEA, as soon as possible. Finally, they agreed to begin talks with a view to a bilateral comprehensive air services agreement and welcomed the agreement on a bilateral EU-Canada air safety agreement.
Climate change and energy. Despite the dissension over this question last week in the final declaration, European and Canadian leaders finally saw eye to eye and “guided by the IPCC findings”, said they were “committed to taking strong and urgent global action, in order to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations”. In order to achieve the necessary substantial reductions, the EU and Canada underlined “the need for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050”. Ottawa is committed to a 60-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2006 and the EU has concluded that developed countries should collectively reduce their emissions by 60-80% by 2050 compared to 1990. To achieve these objectives, and before meeting again within the framework of the G8 summit in Heilingendamm, both sides committed to work actively and constructively together and with other nations to launch negotiations toward a global and comprehensive post-2012 agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December. They also agreed to establish high-level EU/Canada dialogue on energy to address the challenge of energy security, to strengthen their dialogue on the environment, and to pursue cooperation to promote clean, secure and affordable energy technologies.
Bilateral relations. To allow European citizens to go to Canada without requiring a visa, Ottawa stated it would soon provide information on the criteria to be met and the procedure to be followed in order to benefit from visa exemption.
International matters. Recalling their attachment to multilateralism, European and Canadian leaders agreed to consolidate their cooperation in the field of civil and military crisis management and to pursue their cooperation when it comes to election observation. Lebanon, Haiti, Sudan/Darfur and Afghanistan also receive a special mention in their joint summit statement. (eh)